A note on the Amazon ads: I've chosen to display current events titles in the Amazon box. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to promote a disproportionate number of angry-left books. I have no power over it at this time. Rest assured, I'm still a conservative.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Juan Cole is a moron: I don't know why I continue to deal with the unctuous piece of excrement that answers to the name Juan Cole, but when I saw an excerpt of his inane comments on the Iraqi elections on Kausfiles [who seriously needs to get better permalinks], I couldn't resist.

The only way the vote will happen at all is that the US military has forbidden all vehicular traffic, so everyone has to walk for the next few days. This tactic prevents carbombings from disrupting the elections, but it is a desperate measure and not a sign of an election that could be certified as free and fair.

Read that carefully -- no vote can be free and fair if you're barred from using your car for a few days. Next thing you know, you'll have Jimmy Carter in Venezuela asking people if they were able to drive to the polls. And if they didn't...watch out!

Whatever the results, it appears that Iraqis "get" Democracy. Do they still have a tough road ahead? Certainly. But every day they are making fools out of the educated -- like Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinsky. Chemerinsky, one of radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt's "smart guys," apparently believes that the only thing worse than living under a brutal dictatorship is not living under a brutal dictatorship.

Hugh Hewitt: Erwin, do you think Iraq is worse off today than it was three years ago?

Erwin Chemerinsky: Very much so. How many people have died as a result of this? How much have we destroyed the infrastructure as a result of this? What have we gotten for the hundreds of billions of dollars that we've just thrown down the drain, is what we've done? I think that this was a war that the president got us in, through nothing but lies. It's as ill-advised as anything the United States has done militarily, and there's a fascinating chart on the op-ed page of today's New York Times, that shows that 80% of Iraqis now would like to see the United States leave.

You can have an honest debate about whether or not we should've gone to war in Iraq. You can have an honest debate about the way the war and its aftermath have been run. But only a barking moonbat nutjob would even attempt to advance the case that you're better off living under a brutal dicatorship that will feed people through plastic shredders head first -- if you're lucky.

How story is written by a moron. That is the only explanation for the item lead off with the comment that Juan Cole is a moron. I do not know who Juan Cole is, never heard of him before. He may well be a moron, but only a moron would believe that Hoystory's item proves it.

Cole did not say you can't have a fair vote if you can't drive to the polls. He said you won't have such a vote, in a country where car bombs are common, if the voters are under threat of car bombs. Whether or not that is correct is another matter, but it's not all that unreasonable.

And Erwikn Chemerinsky did not say it's better to live under a brutal dictator. I will say, however, there were worse governments in this world at that time than Saddam. The Taliban were worse, and the theocracy that rules Iran is worse, IMO.

The way things are going in Iraq, we may yet have a civil war, and the Shia may yet go to Iran. If so they will have that worse government. The Sunnis are the focus of the terrorists and insurgent movement, and they may yet wind up with a Taliban style govt. Which would also be worse than Saddam.

That will leave the Kurds to have their own country, which won't bother them in the least, but will create tension with Turkey, Iran, and anyplace else that has a significant Kurdish Minority.

The upshot may yet be a regional war. And that would easily be worse than Saddam.